Effects of water logging gradient in the phenotypic differentiation and local adaptation of populations of herbaceous plants from Amazonian floodplain forests.

• Grant number: 24/14318-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: February 28, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Plant Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Clarisse Palma da Silva
• Grantee: Amanda Lichtscheidl Graciadio
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/10639-5 - Center for Research on Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change, AP.CEPID

Abstract

Population heterogeneity has fundamental implications for adaptive phenotype fitness along environmental gradients. Functional traits are the measurable morphological, physiological or phenological characteristics of the organisms that potentially influence their development and that summarize the ways in which they use a resource for their development and survival. When analyzed in heterogeneous environments, the functional traits can help to elucidate the strategies used by the species to survive under different weather conditions (Locosselli et al. 2013). Genomic information in combination with functional attributes information, like ecophysiological tolerances and local adaptation are of great importance for understanding species distribution in the natural environment, both at present as in future scenarios considering extreme weather events and warmer temperatures (Sork 2017). In Amazon riparian forests, plant distribution is mainly determined by species tolerance to varying levels of flooding (Wittmann et al. 2010). Here we propose to analyze possible effects of flooding variation on phenotypic differentiation and local adaptation of populations Ischnosiphon puberulus (Marantaceae) occurring at the riparian zone of the Cupari River, west Pará. For this we aim to evaluate morphological and ecophysiological functional triats in populations of different levels of flooding in order to verify adaptations to local conditions of variation of flooding gradient.